TriDot Podcast .224

8 Questions to Ask When Planning Your Race Season

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Intro: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses yourtraining data and genetic profile, combined with predictive analytics andartificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results inless time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, andentertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and specialguests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.

Andrew Harley: Hey there, everyone, welcome to the TriDot podcast! First off, I wantto give an enormous shout-out to TriDot Coach Rich Soares for hosting our showlast week while I recovered from COVID. I’ve got COVID for Christmas, it was agrand holiday time here in the Harley household as we all caught that andrecovered from that. Rich, of course, did a fantastic job on the show lastweek, as I knew that he would. He is a podcaster himself after all, so I hadhigh confidence in him. Be sure to check out his show, the 303 EndurancePodcast. He interviews people from the Boulder, Colorado 303 area code, andobviously has a lot of pros, a lot of great coaches, a lot of great people inBoulder, so Rich has a fantastic show. Go hear more from him on his ownpodcast, but thanks again one more time to Rich for hosting last week. I amhappy to be healthy and ready to talk on the mic for an hour, so let's get itrolling! At this present moment in time, as we record and publish this episode,it is early in the year 2024, and we will be talking about the eight questionsto ask yourself when setting your race schedule. We'll get race-planning wisdomfrom two of our esteemed TriDot coaches. Our first coach joining us for thisconversation is Kurt Madden. Kurt is a pioneer of the sport and a ten-time Konafinisher. He has three top-ten finishes at the Ironman World Championships, heis a four-time North American age-group champion, and is a four-time number oneworld-ranked age-group Ironman All World Athlete. And as if 140.6 miles is notenough, he is also a two-time Ultraman World Champion, and in 2019 he wasinducted into the Ultraman World Championship Hall of Fame. In addition, he hasa Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology, and he is the Head of CoachDevelopment for TriDot. Kurt Madden, welcome back to the show!

Kurt Madden: Andrew! It is so awesome to be back. I want to give a shout-out to allof our listeners, happy 2024. Let's make this year better than ever.

Andrew:Also with us is TriDot coach Matt Sommer. Matt is the Fitness Director atAlamance Country Club in Burlington, North Carolina, and he has been coachingwith TriDot since 2018. He has a Master's degree in Exercise Physiology and isa founding TriDot Master Coach. He's a certified TriDot Coach, Ironman U Coach,USA Triathlon Coach, and USA Cycling Coach. He is also an accomplished athletehimself. He has been a USAT All American every year since 2016, and will beracing his ninth consecutive Boston Marathon in April of this year. In hisspare time, he also co-hosts the wonderful Triathlon Age Group Journey Podcast.Matt, thanks for joining us!

Matt Sommer: Andrew, it's always great to be here. Thanks for having me back on thepod! Man, it's been a while! I love kicking off the New Year, nothing likekicking it off with you and Kurt. New goals, new ambitions, I love the smell ofhard work and I’m just ready to get this year going, and hope it's the best foreveryone out there.

Andrew:Yeah, love the smell of hard work first thing in the year. I am Andrew theAverage Triathlete, Voice of the People and Captain of the Middle of the Pack.As always, we'll roll through our warmup question, settle in for our main setconversation, and then wind things down with the cooldown. Lots of good stuff,let's get to it!

Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.

Andrew:When race morning comes around, there are several things that every triathleteshould be doing. We should all eat breakfast, we should all double-check ourequipment in T1, and we should all make a visit at some point to the PortaPotty before we get racing. But I'm curious today, as a warm-up question, whatis something that you do on race morning that is unique to you? Not that otherpeople can't do it, but it's just something that you do that you don't think alot of other people are doing. Kurt Madden, what is your answer here?

Kurt:Andrew, you're already stretching those synapses out of the gate, buddy. Idon't know, I'm going to have to really think about this one. Unique to me, Idon't know if I'm really unique. I think I'm with the masses here. You know, acouple of things that I go through, the first thing is to really stay calm. Ithink that calmness, internally, is really key as you kind of set the stage. Ithink the next thing is just stay composed. You're going to have a little bitof anxiety, but if you're composed, chances are you're going to get to thatstarting line in good shape. I'm kind of old-school, I grew up back in the day,and I like to get a song in my head. So I'll definitely put the headphones onand try to get a song that I'm going to remember all day long. Hopefully it's asong that I'm going to enjoy, to really get that rhythm going. Then also I knowas I've gotten older, it's really about being grateful. It's being gratefulthat I have another opportunity to get out there with people that want to enjoya great day of deliberate play. I get out there and learn and grow and just beso gracious. But internally – all listeners, I want to tell you something rightnow – I've got so many butterflies in my tummy. You would think at this pointin my career, I don't care if it's an A race, B race, or a C race, I’m justtrying to get all those butterflies to fly straight.

Andrew:Yeah. Kurt, we'll just say that you've raced so many times, that you'vestreamlined the morning so much that there's nothing unique that you do. Youjust do the things that are essential to a good day at the races. We'll justput it that way. Matt Sommer, is there anything that you do that's unique toyou, that the masses may not be doing on race morning?

Matt:I'm going to echo exactly what Kurt said. It doesn't matter what kind of raceit is, A, B, C race, whether it's just a run, or whether it's a cycle, orwhether it's a tri – I'm nervous, I’ve got anxiety. So I just want to reassureeverybody that that is normal. I always tell my athletes, “You're nervousbecause you care.” I think it's important to own those emotions, own thatenergy. But most of you know, I'm not usually a man of few words, I’m usuallypretty outspoken. But race morning, I'm quiet. I really like my silence, Ireally like my time. I'm not around talking to people. A lot of people arealways shaking hands, catching up. I'm kind of in the zone, I'm getting my headright. But one thing that I do that is pretty unique to me, and I actuallyshare this with my athletes, is with a Sharpie – not body marking, now – Iwrite the initials of my son, my father, and my girlfriend on my wrists. Thatway they are with me all day long. My “why”, my purpose, what really mattersmost at the end of the day is my family and my loved ones. And when the goinggets tough – because it's going to get tough out there. If it doesn't, we'renot working hard enough – but I can look down and I can remember my “why”,remember my purpose, and remember what really matters. If the day's not goinggreat, it really gives me that extra drive. When I need that extra push, I canlook down at those initials, and it just helps me find what I like to call thatthird gear. So yeah, I love it.

Andrew:This one is real simple for me. First thing when I wake up in the morning onrace morning I walk out, start firing up the coffee pot, and while I'm waitingfor that crucial first cup of coffee to be made, there is a meme on my phonethat I've saved under Favorites in my photo album. It's the number one, top oneright there, and I pull it up every single race morning. Whether it's a sprintor an Ironman, it doesn't matter. It just makes me laugh, it kind of disarmsthe seriousness of my morning, and gets me fired up for the day. It's a meme ofWinnie the Pooh and Piglet, the fictional cartoon characters – I'm looking atit right now – they're sitting on a log together. If you know anything aboutWinnie the Pooh, it is a very light-hearted kids-type of cartoon, right? It'snot edgy in any way, shape, or form. But the text here, I'm going to read it,and I'm going to kind of tweak a certain cuss word, and you'll know when youhear it. “What day is today?” asks Pooh. “It's the day we burn this mother f***erto the ground,” squealed Piglet. “Ah, my favorite day,” said Pooh. So it'scapturing this fake conversation between these fake characters, and it's funnybecause it's something that these characters would never say in the actualcartoon. That's what makes the meme funny. I grew up on Winnie the Pooh.Whenever we visited my Grandma and Grandpa at their house, we watched Winniethe Pooh all the time. There’s just something about these characters sitting ona log, having a conversation about burning this mother f***er to the ground,that just puts me in a racing mindset, it just gears me the right way. It givesme a laugh, I drink my coffee, and go through my morning. Guys, we're going tothrow this question out to you, our audience. I'm curious to hear, is thereanything small or fun or different or unique to you that you do on racemorning? Some good answers here from our panel. Make sure you're part of the I AM TriDot Facebook group.We're going to throw this question out there so we can hear what you do on racemorning.

Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…

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Whena triathlete signs up for a race, the decision to do so usually comes about inone of two ways. One, through meticulous research and planning, or number two,completely in the moment on a whim. Either way you can have a great race-dayexperience, but overall the more care you put into planning your race season,the more care your race season should show back to you. So Matt, Kurt, let'sstart here today. When it comes time to set the race schedule for the year, foryour athletes that you coach, that you work with, how much do you discuss thiswith your athletes, versus them just kind of doing their own thing, pickingraces and letting you know what they are? Kurt?

Kurt:This is a key question right out of the gate, and I think I've learned overtime that when you hear a statement from your athlete – I'm sure Matt can nodhis head – when the athlete says, “Coach, you'll never believe what I did.” 99%of the time, that means they have signed up for a race very spontaneously.Like, “Wait a minute, we had this blueprint, we had a puzzle and it's almostdone, and this one piece will not fit into it.”

Andrew:Those pesky athletes.

Kurt:I know. And I think over the past couple of years it hasn't happened quite asmuch, it's gotten a lot better. But ideally, when I look at this, Andrew, Ithink I'm programmed that I look at June. I look at June, mid-year to say“Let's already start looking at the next year.” And we start to forecast, westart to put those big rocks in, and ideally we're going to put in those Araces. I think that's really key. The second time of the year we do it isreally right about now, in December or January. Because what I do with all myathletes is I take them through an annual assessment. We have multiple metricsthat we look at. We're looking at everything, and then we're really talkingabout the next year. At that point we should be good to go. But I have a lot ofathletes – and this really makes me feel good, as their guide, as their teacher– but I've got some athletes that are already planned out to 2026. For me thatis extremely beneficial, because that’s like a long-term investment. When theytell me, “Coach, I'm already planned out to 2026, I have a general plan.” I’mlike, “Yes, that is really, really good.” At the same time though, along theway there are going to be opportunities, something will come up that justpiques their curiosity, that might be a bucket event or a race. I've learned tokind of build that in occasionally, and do it in such a way that we can atleast develop an eight-week cycle versus just stacking races on each other. Ithink that works really well for me, it works really well for the athlete. ButI tell them, at the end of the day, “It's your time, your money and yourresources, but let's make sure we are very strategic.” Because it's just likeany plan. When you do it right and do it well, that blueprint should be verysolid, with a little bit of revisions along the way.

Andrew:Yeah, already getting some great wisdom from Kurt, just hearing about what youdo with your athletes and what those conversations are like. I can tell you,Kurt, I do not have my races planned out through 2026, so maybe that’ssomething that you and I need to have an extra-extracurricular chat about tohelp me out there. Matt Sommer, what does this conversation look like betweenyou and your athletes?

Matt:I'll echo a lot of what Kurt said, it's very similar in mindset. The planningreally does start in November, December, or whenever their off-season begins.You get a chance to sit down with the athlete, debrief this season that justoccurred. What were the successes, what were the learning experiences? Did weachieve the goals that we set out to accomplish together? As Kurt mentioned,he's along for the ride. I'm the copilot. I just help call coordinates and helpguide them along the way, but they’ve got to steer the ship. They’ve got tosteer the plane, they’ve got to land it, they’ve got to take it off, that's theanalogy I like to use. But I ask a lot of questions, I ask my athletes to cometo me with some goal races that they have in mind throughout the year, and thenwe sit down and talk about them. Are we leveling up in distance? Are we maybelooking to accomplish our first full distance? Are we looking to compete in alocal sprint-Olympic series? How much racing do we want to do? What can your bodyabsorb? How much can you actually put out there and avoid burnout? A lot ofthings come into play – family plans, work plans. What does your job consistof? What are your family obligations and your children's schedules, how do theylook? Are they conducive to training certain times of years and not others? Ireally like my athletes to be successful, so we like to pick races, for most ofthem, that are going to support their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.So we’ll look for courses that are really going to allow them to excel. I haveother athletes on my team, and other athletes that I have spoken with, wheretaking them out of their comfort zone is key. So let's pick a race that isgoing to cause them to level up personally, physically, that's going to makethem find that next gear, and make them develop a new sense of athleticism.Then again, as Kurt mentioned, you’ve got to look at budget. You’ve got to lookat how much money we have, what we are looking at doing, the travel. Someathletes want to go out there and to really do well, but I want my athletes tobe in competitive races. I want them to be up against the best of the best, tokind of compare themselves, benchmark themselves. But at the end of the day,it's planning, planning, planning. That's the most important thing.

Andrew:Yeah, great stuff, guys. So we're going to get into the heart of our eightquestions to ask yourself when setting your race schedule. This list of eightwas developed by myself and some members of the TriDot creative team, and I'mcurious to hear from both of you guys your thoughts on each of these items aswe go through them. I don't think this is every question you should askyourself, I do think there's a couple others that are probably great questionsto ask yourself. Matt, you just mentioned one right there – I do not havebudget on my list of eight here. Knowing your budget and asking yourself, “Howmuch am I willing to spend on both registrations and travel?” is an importantthing to ask yourself, but that's not one that made our list of eight. So I'mnot pretending this is a thorough start-to-finish list – there's definitely acouple other things – but this is going to cover a really good bulk of thingsyou should think about when setting your race schedule. So let's get into it,question number one to ask yourself when setting your race schedule, “Is mybody healthy enough to race? And if not, what needs to be addressed before Istart heading out to the races?” Coach Matt, I know this one is near and dearto your heart. Talk to us about assessing whether we are healthy enough tosupport the races that we want to do.

Matt:Yeah, I think most of you know I'm always good for a good quote always, and I'mgoing to start this one with one of the quotes I always think about here, “Ifyou don't schedule a rest day, your body will schedule one for you.” I tell myathletes that all the time. We’ve got to embrace recovery with as much zeal andeffort as we do our intervals and our training. A lot of people get caught upin the training process, and they're really, really good at training, butthey're not good at racing. I see that all the time – they're nailing theirsessions, they're nailing the workouts, but come race day, they kind of fallapart and they don't execute. And that's a hard thing. So when it comes to isthe body healthy enough, the first thing we’ve got to look at is are theyinjury free? If they're not, we need to address that. Obviously you can't goout there and toe the line if you're dealing with an injury or are settingyourself up for an injury. Another thing I always like to ask myself and askthe athletes is how they have been responding to the stimulus of thedevelopment season. Have they absorbed the training? We can only carry aroundso much residual fatigue before the body breaks. So if we're really coming intothis race season and we're just loaded, loaded, loaded, we haven't allowed thebody to absorb all that training. Because training is a stimulus, we have toput our body in a position to absorb it through nutrition, through rest, andthrough all our recovery tactics. It doesn't matter how much training we do, ifwe don't let the body absorb it. Honestly, it comes down to, maybe we don'tneed to do that early-season race. Maybe it would be better-suited to skip itand just let the body heal up. If we are dealing with a nagging injury, orsomething's whispering at us, it's better to listen to it now, because the lastthing you want to do is start the season out with an injury that's going tocarry on for the rest of the season and restrict you from maybe achieving yourathletic goals or hitting those benchmarks we're looking to accomplish.

Matt:Yeah. Great feedback, Matt. I actually did not have this question on the listand it was a late ad, because writing this show kind of prompted me to startlooking at what races I want to do this year. I don't want to go this yearwithout knocking down 1-2-3 of the Texas races, so I will find myself on thestarting line of something. But as I was looking at those early-season races, Ithink if I if I tried to toe the line at a local sprint – there is a localsprint in April in Flower Mound, Texas where I live. Literally, the swim is inthe pool where I train, it's right down the road. I would love to go do it, butif I try to do a sprint in April, coming off of not training at all last year,I'm probably going to hurt myself. So Matt, exactly you're talking about, I'mgetting the body healthy. I'm getting the wheels spinning again, and once Ifeel good, once my body is responding to that development phase, then I'llstart looking at, “Okay, what races are around me in the back half of the year,so I can get back into this wonderful sport of triathlon.” Great feedbackthere, Matt. Coach Kurt, is there anything else that you would consider as weask ourselves the question, “Is our body healthy enough to do the racing wewant to do?”

Kurt:As we know, really health is wealth. When you have it, it is awesome. When youhave COVID, when you have a setback it's like, “Oh my goodness, I appreciatehealth even more.” So really I think with athletes it's important to, evenbefore you start the development phase, take stock at the end of the season,right when your season ends. Let's be very objective from head to toe. Do ablood panel test, get a physical from your doctor, have a complete assessmentthat's very objective. If you know that you've got some niggles or things thathave been prolonged for weeks or months, I think it's very important to set avery conservative low bar. At the same time, if you can check all those boxes –if a coach and athlete, or maybe an athlete and spouse, can look at it togetherand objectively say, “Here's where I am right now. Let's be a little bit moreambitious.” But I think you want to set yourself up for success, and the thingthat we have learned in our sport is that if you have an issue with any type ofhealth matter, the thing I would propose is to be proactive. The more you kickthat can down the road, it tends to never get away. It's kind of like in arace, if you have to go to the bathroom, I think it's best that you stop andactually go to the bathroom. It's not going to get any better, just take careof your business and then move on. Same with your health. Because what willhappen is if you start the season literally in a death spiral, it tends to makeit very tough and very rocky, and then you're reacting to everything. That’shard to plan for an athlete, that's hard for a coach and an athlete to planwhen you're going from week-to-week, hoping and praying, “We're going to ducttape it again.” It's not even whispering, it's now barking all the time, andeveryone gets a little apprehensive. From the planning phase, from a coach,it's hard to plan the season for the athlete. They're very, very tentative. Solet's be proactive, make sure that you're setting a reasonable bar, and alwaysthink long-term, because we've all learned if you miss one race for whateverreason, chances are there's going to be another race this year, and anotherrace the next year, and another race the next year.

Andrew:Moving on to question number two to ask yourself when setting your raceschedule, “What race or races matter the most to me this year?” Kurt Madden,talk to us about assessing which races matter the most to us.

Kurt:Yeah, this goes back to what Matt has already shared, but I want to reinforceit. When you're actually objectively looking at your races and which racesmatters most, I just think it's very important to try to identify if you can atleast one or two A races. The ideal scenario is to put one in the first half,and put one in the second-half. However, if you don't have the time and themoney and the resources, due to family situations or work or things that mightcome up, set the bar. Get the A race done first. I think that's really, reallyimportant. I'm a believer that if an athlete has strengths, just like Matt hassaid, I would select that A race where you're definitely going to have moresuccess. If you've had struggles in a race, I wouldn't pick that as your Arace, because what will happen – I've learned this myself – it starts to get inyour head. Then you have that self-doubt, then you're not confident, and thenyou're like, “Oh, my gosh, what am I doing here?” So set yourself up forsuccess. At the same time, when you look maybe more long-term, if you have aweakness, you need to challenge yourself. For you that might be open waterswimming. Get into the jacuzzi, literally. Build yourself up to challengeyourself with a swim, and make sure that you're going to do that in open water,where you're going to get stronger and better. So you want to work on thatweakness over time, I think it's really, really, really important to do that.Also too, think about the family. Andrew, you've talked about this quite a bitand I do the same thing – as you're looking at maybe two to three or four orfive potential races, we – it's not about me, it's about WE – think about,“Where do we think we might want to vacation again? Is it Texas? Is it NewZealand? Is it Canada? Is it Hawaii?” Because when you get the wind early inthe planning process, it makes it very nice that, “This is going to be ourfamily vacation.” Everyone comes out looking really, really good. So take itfrom me, I've learned that it is so important if you stay that course, you'reprobably going to be more successful in your race selection.

Andrew:Yep, great insight there, Kurt. Matt, anything to add about identifying whatraces matter the most to me this year?

Matt:A couple of things that I do think about when it comes to what races matter themost is, what is the purpose? What is the goal of our season? Are we lookingfor a World Champ qualifier? Are we looking for a Boston Marathon qualifier? Isthere a local race that's super competitive – I call them “local legend” races– that you want to be the local legend that won this local triathlon in yourhometown, to be the best triathlete around? That helps you decide what racesyou’re going to do. If you're looking at a World Championship qualifier,there's strategy to that. Don't just pick a random race, pick one that supportsyour strengths and weaknesses. Look at the timing of the year. Look at thequalification window. Look at it relative to the season – is it late in theseason when everybody's already qualified, so the chance of a roll-down mightbe greater? Look at the races right after the World Championship, because bychance a lot of the competition just raced. They're not going to race the nextweek or the week after that. Leverage strategy and think about those things.That's where a coach can come in handy in this planning. Also, I love what Icall a benchmark race. It might have been your first triathlon you ever did.You go back every year and do it, it's just kind of a calling every year. Itreally lets you see the growth in the sport on an annual basis, when you can goback to that same course year after year, just see the growth, the maturity andthe fitness that you've developed and gained from day one. I love thosebenchmark races, I love those local legend races. They're fun, that's yourlocal community. Those are all important things when you're thinking about whatrace you want to do.

Andrew:Yeah, there’s a ton of reasons why a race can be the one that matters a lot toyou. A really good way of highlighting that there, Matt. Moving us on toquestion number three to ask ourselves when setting our race schedule, “Howmany times do I want to go long, go short, or go middle-distance.” Coach Kurt,talk to us about this one. Talk to us about thinking through how often ourbodies can take us long, medium, and short at the races.

Kurt:As we often say, I think it really depends upon the athlete. But from aplanning purpose, I'm going to start with time. I think it's really importantfor each athlete to be very objective, get out a calendar for the entire year,and don't do it in isolation. Have your sherpa or your companion, have yourteam right there so you're planning it at home. If it's with your coach, you'regoing to do the exact same thing. The ideal situation, again depending upon theathlete, is to say, “With the time I have, it would be great to do maybe asprint or an Olympic, do a 70.3.” For the long course, I want to caution – andyou might be surprised because I'm known to do a few long-course races a year,in fact more than two. However, I think that goes into your body. You've got tosee your tolerance for doing high-volume work. For many people it just does notwork out, it's not in the cards because of their body type, the recovery. Ithink some people – and I want to be really honest when I say this – if younever do a full Ironman, in my book and our TriDot family, you're still numberone. You can do sprints or Olympic-distance all the time, and I think it's ahuge, huge commitment. So let's start with time.

Thenext piece very realistically, as we talked about it, is to lay the wholebudget out. Let's put all the cards on the table. I've had an athlete tell me,“Coach, I finally figured out how much money I spent last year, and I'mprobably not going to tell my wife.” I said, “Hallelujah.” I keep myspreadsheet right here and I know it's probably more, but I'm investing inhealth. But you've got to set a realistic bar, because we know that, especiallyif you go to a long-course race or an Ironman-distance race, you have the entryfee, you have the travel, you've got three nights lodging, you should probablytake your spouse or your companion. Versus if it's a real quick one, I can getup there and get back quick, I can save a few dollars. I'll sleep on the couchand that's all good. So look at your budget, because I can tell you honestly,you don't want to get into a financial hole, because it doesn't go away. All ofa sudden you're looking at this and go, “I just saw this shiny new bike that Ireally want. Oh wait a minute, I can't have both.” So look at your budget. Thenagain, actually look at all your resources. You've got to look at everythingthat you're trying to do, from being a good mom or dad or spouse, andcommitments and everything. So if I balance your time, your budget, and yourresources – I think that would be something that each athlete should to assesswith their coach – that is really, really important to do. But the idealscenario is to go short, medium, and then possibly long.

Andrew:Yeah, and there's definitely personality types and body types, like you said,that are better at doing certain things. I personally like the variety. I likegoing short, medium, and longish every single year if I can. And I say longishlike a half-Ironman. And yeah, there's people that all they do is sprints andOlympics, and that's great. There's people that all they do is Ironman. They'lldo two, three, or four of those a year. That's great for them, not for me.Great feedback there, Kurt. Matt, anything to add here on how to mix up ourshort, medium, and long throughout the season?

Matt:Another big thing – I can't stress this one enough, and Kurt mentioned this –is recovery, recovery, recovery. You cannot get fruit from the tree year-round.I can't stress that enough. Everybody recovers differently. When I work with myathletes, we pay very close attention to how they recover from their weekendtraining rides and from their race rehearsals. How does their body absorb thetraining stress, and how long does it take for them to recover? Those arethings that we talk about on a regular basis. I mean, if you have a 2 1⁄2-hourbike ride on the weekend followed by a 20-minute run, and then the next day youhave a threshold repeat, your legs might be a little tired on Monday. Everybodyabsorbs training differently, and we’ve got to listen to that. Again, if we'renot recovering from training sessions, racing is going to be a little bitharder. So going week to week to week, doing a sprint one week, maybe two weekslater an Olympic, we can't do it. Something's going to break, and at the same timeyou're not going to be at peak fitness. That's the other thing we’ve got toconsider – racing is not just getting out there and finishing. If racing to youis performance-based, and it’s about peaking and coming out there with all gunsfiring, you’ve got to put yourself in that position for success. That involvestraining peaks and training lows to allow the body to absorb, so we can putthat fitness out there to the best of our ability and play that best hand onrace day.

Andrew:Question number four to ask yourself when setting your race schedule, “Arethere any times during the year where I shouldn't race?” A few principles hereI think have already been touched on in some previous questions, but let's seewhat we need to revisit here. Kurt, I'll send this one over to you first. Whenan athlete is looking at their life, they're looking at the family schedule andtrying to identify, “Are there times of year where I shouldn't race?” What arewe looking for here?

Kurt:Yeah, this is a reality. We need to have this honest conversation. There aretimes when you shouldn't race. I know that we get the momentum, and literallywe can race year-round if we have the time, money and the resources. I'm goingto go back to what Matt has said, I'm going to give you a few differentscenarios. Let’s say you're picking a race in Oceanside – I live in San Diego,I am 30 minutes from Oceanside. I know every single year that water is 60°. Ifyou're not a good open-water swimmer, if you don’t love waves, and if you don'tlike 60° water temperature in the ocean, then you shouldn't race that race. Ifyou haven't got your reps in, that's a very poor choice. Then we've got IronmanTexas. If I've got an athlete who lives in a very cold environment, and they'reon a trainer all the time and they're not out in the heat, even though they'retrying to simulate it, I can tell you honestly they're going to have a littlebit more challenge when they start that race, as compared to someone that livesin Texas in a very warm environment. You can try to simulate it, but I can tellyou honestly, riding on a trainer for five hours is a lot different than beingoutside with the heat and the wind and everything else. So that's kind of onthe front-end of the season. The other thing is you've got to look at what'sgoing on in August, September and October. I'm not saying you shouldn't race inthat 90-day window, but pull back a little bit in your planning. Because I findthat when you actually get to that time of the year in September or October,probably 70% of athletes have some type of niggle or injury. It's really sad toget to a World Championship when you're hearing people say, “All I want to dois finish this race. I am done,” even before the start. I'm not saying that youshouldn't race at that time of the year, but just plan that out a little bitmore, it's a key time of the year. The other thing too, at the end of the year– Matt touched on it, and I've learned from experience, and I see this all thetime – if you're doing a full Ironman late in the year, it is very important togive yourself a big gap before you jump into another race. Now if it's anOlympic, it's a C race, that's not a big deal. But if you try to come off a bigA race that's Ironman-distance, and then go into a 70.3, chances are you're notgoing to bounce back. Some people can recover at the end of the year, I wouldsay ideally in five or six weeks, but I know one person that did Saint George –Andrew, you were there, that was a really tough day – and it took him overthree months. We were both like, “What in the heck happened?” He's like,“Coach, I am not recovered,” and it just wiped out most of his season. So bereal careful, after those full Ironman-distance races, not to jump back intothe fire too quickly.

Andrew:Matt, when you talk to your athletes about identifying times of the year wheremaybe they shouldn't do certain races, is there anything we haven't covered yetthat that you talk about with your athletes?

Matt:Not really, I think you guys really hit the nail on the head. A huge one I talkto my athletes about are your job demands. If you're a tax accountant and it'stax season, you're going to have a hard time getting the training in. Don't setyourself up for failure by doing a super early race in the spring, when it'scrunch time and you're still working up into April for tax day. Teachers, samething, Kurt mentioned that already. We’ve got to be sensitive to your schedule.Then the one that gets overlooked all too often, I tell people “Man, you’ve gotto pay attention to your kids’ schedules, your kids athletic schedules.” Ifyour kid plays travel soccer, travel volleyball, or any type of travel sports,or if you're balancing more than one child, do yourself a favor and talk toyour spouse. Try to get an understanding of what that schedule looks like,because a lot of these games are on the weekends. It could be on Saturdaymorning. You don't want to miss that. I don't care how great that finish-line feelingis, you will look back and regret missing those games, missing those practices,and not being a big part of your kid’s childhood. You can't replace that. Imake sure that when I talk with my athletes weekly and we prioritize sessionsfor the week – you can ask all of them – one of the first questions I ask is,“What family commitments do you have this week that we need to work around?”That is at the forefront of my coaching, is we don't skip family time. We willwork around that, because this is something that's meant to be secondary.That's close and personal to me. But then again, you don't want to burn out. Ithink that's the biggest thing, is I've had some athletes that are like, “Yeah,I want to race in April, and then I'm going to go do CLASH Daytona inDecember.” And I'm like, “Hold on! Time out!” Like all of a sudden we're goingfrom April to December, and you're trying to stay at peak fitness the wholetime. You know that's a tough one. I stress to them that we’ve got to have thatdowntime then in the middle of the summer. If you're going to do that, we’vegot to have a little bit of a lull so that we can then peak again. You can'tmaintain peak fitness all year long. It's not going to happen, you'll setyourself up for an injury. It's going to be one of the “itises”. Overuseinjuries happen, we all develop them, and I see it happen to athletes all thetime that try to ride that fitness wave. All that fitness they developed overthe preseason, they try to ride it all year long – like Kurt, you and yoursurfing – they try to ride it and just have that perfect wave. You're going tocrash, you're going to burn. It's not fun to help pick those pieces up. Whenyou have a great athlete that's talented, committed, disciplined, that's fullof heart – to help pick them up and help them rebuild, that's tough.

Andrew:Question number five to ask yourself when setting your race schedule, “Whatwill my desired races do to my training calendar?” Every time you add a race toyour schedule on TriDot, it starts optimizing your schedule for those races. Sothere's training implications to everything you put on the calendar. MattSommer, talk to us about this.

Matt:This is a great question. This is one that a lot of athletes struggle with. Ido ask my athletes – when we collaborate together and we decide what the raceschedule is going to look like – I like to enter them in for my athletes. Forme, it's a little bit more of a control thing. I do struggle with that, I'll behonest.

Andrew:Self-awareness, Matt. It’s a great trait.

Matt:Absolutely, I own it. But we just want to make sure that the races get enteredcorrectly. If you put an A race as a 70.3 in June, then let's say you've got afull-distance race in August – and TriDot allows you to put it in as an A race– we’ve got to make sure that we're keeping our eyes on the big prize that'scoming in August. Because we can put that 70.3 on as a C race, and thentogether we can make sure that we build into it appropriately. We're stilllooking forward to that full that's coming up later, and we can taper andrecover together out of that 70.3. By calling it a C race, we're notdowngrading the importance of it, we're just keeping our eyes on that the buildis going appropriately towards the full, and not getting overlooked. Putting alot of races on can pull you out of the development phase. That's going to bethe biggest thing, is what strengths are we looking to gain? What is thepurpose of that development phase? Where are we trying to get the engine? Whatdo we want to accomplish with your run FTP, your bike FTP, your swimassessments? Those help as benchmarks so we can get pacing. Too many races, younever truly peak. We don't ever get peak fitness if we're constantly up anddown and up and down, because we aren't allowing the training to do its job.Recovery, that's another big thing. Where do we need to put that recovery in?How long after a full distance? How long after a 70.3, an Olympic, a sprint?And that's unique to each athlete. There's not a cookie-cutter template to that,I think Kurt will attest to that as well. Every athlete is going to bedifferent when it comes to what they need to recover in between. And again, Ialready mentioned this quote, it's a great one, “We can't get fruit from thetree year-round.” You’ve got to allow the body to have growing seasons, harvestseasons, and planting seasons.

Andrew:Yep, fantastic insight from Coach Matt on thinking through what adding a racewill do to your training calendar. Coach Kurt, anything to add here?

Kurt:Up to now Andrew, this has been the best question.

Andrew:Thank you, Kurt. Thank you.

Kurt:This is something that should be posted in someone's house, or framed, or putsomewhere that you're looking at all the time. Ask the question, “What will mydesired races do to my training calendar?” Three simple words – “implications,implications and implications.” That's something where you really need tostart, because what I've seen is you've got to go back to your A race, ifyou're doing a 70.3 or a full Ironman. Look at your race rehearsals, do thebackward mapping, knowing that that's about a five-week commitment right there.By adding or stacking more races somewhere around that period, it's kind oflike we're taking a step forward, we're taking a step back. We're going to goto the right, you're going to go to the left. So the athlete will have to makeadjustments, and/or the coach is going to have to make an adjustment. But itreally, really, becomes super disruptive. I think a thing that every TriDottercan look at, regardless of what level you're on or what platform you're on asfar as your subscription goes, look at the weekly training stress. Be veryobjective and look at those graphs, look at your normalized training stress. Ifyou see that you're constantly doing way too much training, you need to pullback a little bit and say, “If that was desired, let's let it drop off.” I'vehad athletes approach me like, “I want to do a 70.3.” I say, “Fantastic, wehave two races rehearsals.” “But Coach, I want to do three half-marathons,because I'll get better if I do three half-marathons, and the race rehearsals,and then the race.” And I’m thinking, “Wait a minute. That candle will not beburning bright when we get to A race. We're down to nothing. So let's hold offon that, maybe do one so it's quality over quantity.” The other thing I'velearned too is travel. If a person is traveling quite a bit for work, and/orvacation, and/or racing, many times travel takes a lot out of you, especiallywhen you're on the road a lot of the time. It affects your sleep, your diet,your recovery. So those are things you might want to consider too.

Andrew:Yep, great stuff. I am going to skip over question number six to ask yourself.I'm going to say it, but Kurt already really touched on this one in a previousquestion. Question number six to ask yourself when setting your race scheduleis, “What will the weather conditions be like for my race prep phases?” Kurtalready talked about a little bit, I think Matt touched on it a little bit aswell. If you're looking at a certain race, and it's the X time of year, with Xweather locations, where your training is very different from those weatherconditions – all those things have to be considered. You have to ask yourselfhow you're going to pull that training off. Are you going to be able to go intothat race as prepared as you would like to be? Kurt gave the example earlier ofOceanside and Ironman Texas in the spring. That is a question to ask yourself.“Based on where I live, based on my current weather, based on when I will beprepping for this race, is this a smart race for me to put on the calendar?”I'm going to skip over having you guys comment on that one because you alreadyhave touched on it, and I want to move us on to question number seven to askyourself when setting your race schedule, “Do I want or need any tune-up eventsfor my A races?” We talked earlier about how to identify which races are your Araces, and Kurt kind of started to talk about this just a moment ago. How do weidentify if we need any tune-up events for those important races on thecalendar?

Kurt:Yeah, I'll go ahead and add a little bit more. We talked about the A race, ifit's a 70.3, or even an Olympic or a full, that you definitely built in thoserace rehearsals. I think that's really important. At the same time, I'velearned through trial and error – mostly from error, especially with athletesand myself – sometimes a rehearsal is just a rehearsal. I think you'll learn alittle bit more when you're in the arena, and the bullets are flying left andright, that you've got to actually go out and do the race. Especially with twothings that a coach can take away with the athlete, and/or if the athlete iscoaching themselves. The first is, really be objective about your pacing.Really get that dialed in. Was my pacing even in the swim? Where was my wattageceiling on the bike? Did I hold back on the run? If you did that, give yourselfa pat on the back. That is really, really key in a race-like condition, not arace rehearsal. The second thing is your nutrition. We haven't really touchedon nutrition very much, but I've learned that you've got to go over it againand again and again. I've learned that if you're going to do maybe just oneIronman race the whole year, I’ve found those athletes are not very successful,especially with their nutrition. Because depending upon where the race is andthe environmental conditions, your nutrition has to be tweaked. If I'm racingin Lake Placid, that's a lot different than Texas, that's a lot different thanKona, and that might be a lot different than Nice, France. So nutrition isreally going to play into your tune-up races, to practice your nutrition. Youmay be a person that the things that are on the course are going to work foryou, or it doesn't agree with you. You really want to get that dialed in. I thinkthe biggest compliment for an athlete coaching themselves, or for an athletethat is being coached, is when they can say, “My nutrition was spot-on.” Thatjust brings me joy and happiness. It's like, “Okay, then don't change it. Weare in a really good spot. We'll tweak it a little bit depending upon your nextrace.” But when you get that down, it's such a nice feeling. Like, “I have noGI issues, the bathroom wasn't my best friend. It was really cool to finishstrong.” That's what I would add.

Andrew:Yeah, great feedback there. Definitely the longer workouts and the racerehearsals can help you dial that nutrition in as well, but there is no daylike race day for those kinds of items. Matt, anything to add here on what youtalk to your athletes about in terms of scheduling tune-up races for their Araces?

Matt:A couple things to add there. When my athletes come to me, I always ask them,“Why?” It's not a kind of antagonistic “why”, it's like, “What are you lookingto gain from it?” Really, from a coaching side, trying to get them to explainto me their purpose behind the desire to do it. And it's kind of unique toevery athlete. I think for some, it’s not the physical confidence, they'relooking for the mental confidence. I think that's a big side that we need totake into consideration. We have two race rehearsals. My personal philosophy onthe first race rehearsal is, it's all about physical confidence. We'redeveloping the physical confidence that I can do these distances, and I canexecute, and I'm physically prepared for race day. To me, the second racerehearsal is about dotting the i, crossing the t, and reassuring ourselves thatwe're mentally ready for the race day. I can't stress enough, like what Kurtsaid, that every training session, every opportunity we go out there, we'repracticing nutrition. We're practicing hydration. We're practicing electrolyteutilization. We're practicing race-day apparel. Those are the big four, I callthem the controllables. Those that coach with me know I refer to those all thetime. Electrolytes, hydration, nutrition, apparel. We get those dialed in inevery training session, so that come race day, you just go with it. It'salready a routine that we've established, and we know it works, and we dialthem in weekly. Some athletes come to me and are like, “Hey Coach, I want toget out there. I really want to go do this 70.3.” I throw out the aquabikeoption. “Are you disciplined enough? If not, we're going to do an aquabike”Because we can go full-tilt on the swim, we can go full-tilt on the bike, butthat run is what's going to cause us to be mindful the next week aboutrecovery. But if you're disciplined enough where you'll go Zone 2 on the run –and I look him in the eye and I can see they're like, “Ohh, Coach!” I have veryfew that have been like, “Yes, Coach, I will go Zone 2 on the run.” Because youcome off the bike and you're in third position, all of a sudden that podium'scalling your name and position two is right there and you’ve got a Zone 2 run –they just have a hard time. So I'm like, “Listen, if you're not disciplinedenough, do the aquabike. Then we can get back to normal training on Sunday andyou can get your normal run in.” It's a win-win. Physical and mental confidenceare accommodated, and we can maintain the integrity of our training cycle.

Andrew:Yeah, when I as an athlete am interested in a tune-up event, it's eitherbecause I haven't raced in a long time – so I just want to knock the rust offand get out there – or I have a race coming up that is intimidating to me insome way. If that's because it's a full-distance Ironman, or if it’s becauseit's something wild like Escape from Alcatraz. I'm not going to do anythingleading up to it that's remotely the same distance, but I do want to do a racesomewhere just to get some nerves out. That, “Hey, I've done this recently,”before I go into that intimidating race. That's what it is for me when I wantto do one.

Matt:You did bring up another great point there, the “rust-buster” mindset. I'm afan of those personally too. It's a great opportunity to get out there, remindyourself what transitions are like, T1 and T2. It's a routine, it's a habit,the more we do it. We can practice them all we want, taking the shoes off andputting these on, and it's great when it's in your garage, or in the driveway,or in your living room. But it's another thing when it's full-tilt. So gettingout there and remembering what works, what doesn't, what did I forget, what doI need to remember? I do like that mindset of really working through thosetransitions in real speed.

Andrew:Question number eight to ask yourself when setting your race schedule, last onewe're going to talk about here today, “Do I want any non-triathlon events orathletic endeavors on my schedule?” Am I interested in a marathon? Am Iinterested in a bike-only event? Am I interested in a Spartan race? Am Iinterested in hiking for a week in the mountains? Whatever it may be,considering those things is going to come into play when it comes to settingyour triathlon schedule. Coach Kurt, talk to us about this.

Kurt:Yes, that is the answer. I think life is short. It's important to swim, bike,and run. At the same time, it's so nice to be able to pick something that'smaybe not in the triathlon arena. I've learned myself, and I've learned workingwith numerous athletes, the best time to do it is before the season actuallystarts, or literally at the end. The worst time is somewhere in the middle.Because I've learned that if you're all of a sudden like, “Hey, I'm going to dothis mountain bike race in July or August,” if you're coaching yourself, youwant to ask yourself, “When's the last time I was on a mountain bike?” It goesback to what Matt said, “Why am I doing this? And am I going to get killed?” Ifyou're a coach, you're talking him off the cliff right away, like “No, this isa disaster. I can smell it, I can taste it, I can touch it. Not a good choice.”If we're going to do a death spiral, do it at the end of the year, because allyour races are done. Or do it at the beginning of the year. I had an athlete recentlythat went on a great vacation, but all of a sudden got involved in a fewdifferent activities that he probably shouldn't have, and now he can't swim forabout six or seven weeks. We're going to be okay though. And we've learned inour contract we have to be very careful. Those two activities – I don't carehow many adult beverages you've had, you're not doing it, because Coach said. Iam going to get in your grill a little bit to let you know that just shouldn'ttake place. Years ago I did a mud run with my two boys, and it was soimportant, but I did at the start of the year. To this day they tell the story,but the story changes every time they tell it. I'm like, “No, that's not true.Dad did not do that, so don't even say that in front of Mom. You'reexaggerating.” They'll just kind of embellish it, and I'm like, “No, thatdidn't happen.” But that bonding experience – or, “Hey, we're going to go dosomething fun with five people.” To me, even if it’s an athlete, or family, orneighbor, that is so important because you're building relationships. You'rebuilding fond memories. You’re like, “Hey, it's a real low bar. We're justgoing to go out and have fun. We're not going to be on the podium for this one,but we want to finish it together.” And I've learned in life, when you lookback it’s like, “I actually liked that event more than some other races where Iwas super competitive, trying to get a PR or something.” So yeah, go out thereand play and have fun.

Andrew:Matt Sommer, same question over to you. How do these types of events interactwith their triathlon scheduling?

Matt:Just say yes. It feels so good to say yes, I can't stress that enough.Absolutely. It's not just a marathon, it's not half-marathons, it's not, “Let'sgo do a 10K.” Let's be honest, triathletes are sagittal-plane beasts. We’ve gotto get out of that sagittal plane of forward, backwards, forward, backwards.That's all we do, overuse. Get out there and have fun. Go play pickleball. Gosnowshoeing, go cross-country skiing. Try different things. Go to the battingcage with your son or daughter that plays baseball or softball. Get out thereand try some volleyball. Go disc golfing. Just do different stuff, do whateverit is that you miss doing, whatever your spouse or your kids are into. Enjoyit. I'm a big fan also – I know Kurt mentioned maybe not during the season – Iwill tell my athletes, “Listen, it's a Zone 2 bike. I don't care if you go dogravel. I don't care if you go on the mountain bike. It's heart-rate based. Getout there, get on the different bike, have fun.” Or if it's a Zone 2 run, “Go trailrun, but be mindful of the roots. Be mindful of the descents.” You've got to bean advocate of yourself, but it's okay to change those up and get out on thegravel, get out on the trails. Go for a hike instead of a Zone 2 run, just getthe heart rate where it needs to be. We can still be purposeful and changethings up and have a lot of fun. But it just feels good to say yes. Variety isthe spice of life, you may find something else that you enjoy as well, and getsyou out in different social circles too, by just saying yes.

Andrew:Last question I want to ask today before we shut this episode down. Fromy'all's expert coaching perspective, is there anything we missed here? Is thereanything important that was not on this list that you talk to your athletesabout as they're setting their own schedules? I want to hear from Kurt, thenwe’ll hear from Matt, and we'll call it a day. Coach Kurt?

Kurt:Yes. Number one, play the long game. Sit down, look out three to five years.From there, start looking at your bucket list, to say “Now this would bring mejoy. This is the one thing I would want to do if my life ended shortly after.”I think identifying bucket lists – because all of us are going to reach a pointwhere we're going to encounter regrets. What do I regret most? I regret that Ididn't get on that bucket list and do something that would bring me joy. Ithink that is so, so important. Because when you can't do it anymore, that'swhen you're like, “Oh my gosh, it was right in front of me.” The other thingtoo, and I've touched on it but I think it's important, most of your races tryto go back to where you've had success. As a coach, as a teacher, as a guide, Iguide them back to, “Hey, I know you want to do those things, but chances areyou're going to be very successful in those types of events.” So those areother things that I consider. But again, this is an ongoing conversation with athletes,and even athletes have those conversations with themselves. Have thoseconversations with people in your home. I think that they're going toappreciate that.

Andrew:Matt Sommer, anything that we missed?

Matt:The biggest thing I always advise my athletes – and this is in life, this is intraining, this is in anything – you’ve got to be flexible. Life is going tohappen. You cannot change the cards you're dealt, you can just change the wayyou play them. We’ve got to be ready to pivot. We’ve got to be ready to “callan audible” at all points during the training session, any training season,during racing, during everything. Expect the unexpected. Adversity will showup. It's not a question of if, it's when, and how you address it is going todictate your success. Those are all things I like to work through with myathletes. That way, we're prepared on race day. When adversity shows up, youlook at your wrists like I like to do, to get a little bit more strength. “Gameon”, you grab life by the horns, and you just go with it. That's what this isall about. Life happens. You're going to have sick children, you're going tohave job changes, you're going to maybe have relationship issues. You're goingto have environmental issues – it's going to rain on race day, it's going to bewindy on race day – you’ve got to be ready to pivot and be flexible. I alwaysstress to my athletes, we do this for fun, and for passion, and as a hobby.Training and racing should be a source of stress release, not a source ofstress. When I can tell that the workouts are becoming a source of stress, orweighing on my athlete, we take a time-out. We talk about it and try to resetthat mindset.

Andrew: Lovethat.

Matt:We've got to have the mindset of we do this for fun, we do this for pleasure,we do this for fitness. Nobody's holding a gun to your head, nobody's makingyou do it. As a matter of fact, we're paying $850 to go do it, and we're buyingexpensive bikes, and we're taking time and energy, our two most preciouscommodities, away from our family. You’d better love what you do, that's thebiggest thing I say.

Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.

Vanessa Ronksley: It's cooldown time! I'm Vanessa, your AverageTriathlete with Elite-Level Enthusiasm! I'm excited to have Jared Kaminskijoining me today from Cameron, North Carolina, where he teaches AdvancedPlacement environmental science at a high school, and he is also a USA swimcoach, and coaches with the TAC Titans in Cary, North Carolina. Jared startedtraining and racing triathlon in 2019, and has since become a multiple Ironmanfinisher. He is an All World athlete for 2023, and a 2023 USAT age groupnational qualifier. He began coaching with TriDot over a year ago, andspecializes in athletes who are beginner and intermediate, as well as anyonewho wants to improve their swim. One thing that most people don't know aboutJared, is that he has eaten both guinea pig and alpaca, and he claims thatalpaca is better. Welcome to the show, Jared! I think we need to start off withhow you ended up with these two kinds of animals on your plate.

Jared Kaminski: Thank you, Vanessa. So it was about 12 yearsago. We ended up doing a college field school for archaeology in Peru for aboutsix weeks, and those are two staples of the Peruvian diet. You find alpaca morein the cities and bigger towns and things like that, and guinea pig is found inthe country. So most restaurants have both, and it's tradition for people newto the country to go ahead and give it a shot. Alpaca comes more in like aburger form, and Guinea pig comes kind of like rabbit and squirrel, so they'vestill got the claws on it and everything else. It's a little gamey, it's alittle thin. But alpaca is pretty good, it's just like a regular burger here inthe United States.

Vanessa:That's awesome. And here we are, I'm excited to talk to you today. Not onlybecause I think you love triathlon as much as I do, but because you're ateacher, and I was a teacher, so I think we get each other on a totallydifferent level. And it seems like we both love to travel, too.

Jared:Yeah, I love to travel, and teaching is super fun. I've been to, I think, ninecountries now. I've been bitten by the travel bug, and try to go someplaceevery couple of years.

Vanessa:Well, I think you're going to deliver an amazing tip for us today, so let'shear it. What do you think is important for our athletes to know?

Jared:I think one of the most important things, coming from a swimming background,having done that for so many years coaching and competitively, is to addkicking in some form or fashion into your workouts. Kicking is the motor forswimming. It's a little different than some other sports where the betterkicker you are. The more efficient you are, the faster you're going to go inthe pool. Not only that, it actually can help with your body position. Theentire thing with swimming is to reduce what we call frontal drag forces, withwater pushing on you. So if we don't kick, more often than not, the lower partof your body from about your belly button down, begins to sink. And as thatsinks you're adding more drag, which is going to cause you to swim slower.Kicking elevates the hips, elevates the legs and the feet so they end up inline behind the head, and you reduce the drag forces, and it's easier. It alsocan help save the shoulders and just make you a more efficient swimmer. Wedon't need you to become a world-class kicker, we don't need you to become asprinter with kicking. We just need a kick that is efficient, that falls inline with your cadence and your stroke, so that we're able to help moveourselves through the water.

Vanessa:Okay, there were so many things to unpack in that statement that you just said.

Jared:I know, right?

Vanessa:Yeah. We could talk for hours about the kick, I think.

Jared:Oh, we could. It's one of the things that we can spend two hours in the poolwith year-round swimmers working on. It's not something that we really need tospend that much time on for triathlon. But it's just something that we need tobe comfortable with, so that when we're in a race, or we are trying to movefaster around somebody, we can trust our legs to move us, and we don't have toworry about cramping or not being able to engage those muscles as they movethrough the water.

Vanessa:Okay, so what kind of kicking are you getting your athletes to do, and at whatpoint in the workout would you suggest doing them?

Jared:The majority of it is what we call flutter kick, for freestyle and backstroke.The majority of my athletes I have them work it into warmup, whether it's 100to 200, based upon how comfortable they are. Obviously if we're new to it, it'sgoing to be a little slow, it's going to be a little daunting. It's going to bea little hard, so we just start easy. The other thing that I'll have them dois, anything in their workouts that gets labeled “choice”, we turn intokicking. It doesn't matter if you use a board, it doesn't matter if you go onyour back. You can use a snorkel and kick on your stomach. All three will bebeneficial. If you want the most bang for your buck out of it every single lap,the best way to do it is put on a swim snorkel, arms at your side, head in anice easy neutral position, and just kick down the pool.

Vanessa:Can you give a few pointers so that an athlete can know if they're practicingit correctly?

Jared:Yeah. We should have a little bit of what we call whitewater behind you, soyour feet should make just like a ripple of white water. We don't want the feetcoming too high out of the water. Your hips should be at the surface, so theway to do that is we call it “lifting from your belly button”, so the bellybutton into your spine. Then the last thing we're kicking from our hips. Wedon't want to have the bicycle legs going on, just a nice easy kick from thehips. And if you're sitting on top of the water, then we're in the right spot.

Outro:Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast withyour triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with uson Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head totridot.com and start your free trial today! TriDot – the obvious and automaticchoice for triathlon training.

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